FROM THE DECEMVIRATE TO THE CAPTURE OF ROME BY THE GAULS. B.C. 448-390.
The efforts of the leaders of the Plebeians were now directed to two
subjects, the removal of the prohibition of intermarriage between the
two orders, and the opening of the Consulship to their own order. They
attained the first object four years after the Decemvirate by the Lex
Canuleia, proposed by Canuleius, one of the Tribunes (B.C. 445). But
they did not carry this law without a third secession, in which they
occupied the Janiculum. At the same time a compromise was effected with
respect to the Consulship. The Patricians agreed that the supreme power
in the state should be intrusted to new officers bearing the title of
_Military Tribunes with Consular Power_, who might be chosen equally
from Patricians and Plebeians. Their number varied in different years
from three to six. In B.C. 444 three Military Tribunes were nominated
for the first time. In the following year (443) two new magistrates,
called _Censors_, were appointed. They were always to be chosen from the
Patricians; and the reason of the institution clearly was to deprive
the Military Tribunes of some of the most important functions, which had
been formerly discharged by the Consuls. The Censors originally held
office for a period of five years, which was called a _lustrum_; but
their tenure was limited to eighteen months, as early as ten years after
its institution (B.C. 443), by a law of the Dictator Mamercus Æmilius,
though they continued to be appointed only once in five years.[18]
Though the Military Tribunes could from their first institution be
chosen from either order, yet such was the influence of the Patricians
in the Comitia of the Centuries that it was not till B.C. 400, or nearly
forty years afterward, that any Plebeians were actually elected. In B.C.
421 the Quæstorship was also thrown open to them. The Quæstors were the
paymasters of the state; and as the Censors had to fill up vacancies in
the Senate from those who had held the office of Quæstor, the Plebeians
thus became eligible for the Senate.
During these struggles between the two orders an event took place which
is frequently referred to by later writers. In the year 440 B.C. there
was a great famine at Rome. Sp. Mælius, one of the richest of the
Plebeian knights, expended his fortune in buying up corn, which he sold
to the poor at a small price, or distributed among them gratuitously.
The Patricians thought, or pretended to think, that he was aiming at
kingly power: and in the following year (439) the aged Quintius
Cincinnatus, who had saved the Roman army on Mount Algidus, was
appointed Dictator. He nominated C. Servilius Ahala his Master of the
Horse. During the night the Capitol and all the strong posts were
garrisoned by the Patricians, and in the morning Cincinnatus appeared in
the forum with a strong force, and summoned Mælius to appear before his
tribunal. But seeing the fate which awaited him, he refused to go,
whereupon Ahala rushed into the crowd and struck him dead upon the spot.
His property was confiscated, and his house was leveled to the ground.
The deed of Ahala is frequently mentioned by Cicero and other writers in
terms of the highest admiration, but it was regarded by the Plebeians at
the time as an act of murder. Ahala was brought to trial, and only
escaped condemnation by a voluntary exile.
In their foreign wars the Romans continued to be successful, and, aided
by their allies the Latins and Hernicans, they made steady progress in
driving back their old enemies the Volscians and Æquians. About this
time they planted several colonies in the districts which they
conquered. These Roman colonies differed widely from those of ancient
Greece and of modern Europe. They were of the nature of garrisons
established in conquered towns, and served both to strengthen and extend
the power of Rome. The colonists received a portion of the conquered
territory, and lived as a ruling class among the old inhabitants, who
retained the use of the land.
The Romans now renewed their wars with the Etruscans; and the capture of
the important city of Veii was the first decisive advantage gained by
the Republic. The hero of this period was Camillus, who stands out
prominently as the greatest general of the infant Republic, who saved
Rome from the Gauls, and whom later ages honored as a second Romulus.
Veii, however, was only taken after a long and severe struggle. It was
closely allied with Fidenæ, a town of Latium, not more than five or six
miles from Rome. The two cities frequently united their arms against
Rome, and in one of these wars Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, was
slain in single combat by A. Cornelius Cossus, one of the Military
Tribunes, and his arms dedicated to Jupiter, the second of the three
instances in which the _Spolia Opima_ were won (B.C. 437). A few years
afterward Fidenæ was taken and destroyed (B.C. 426), and at the same
time a truce was granted to the Veientines for twenty years. At the
expiration of this truce the war was renewed, and the Romans resolved to
subdue Veii as they had done Fidenæ. The siege of Veii, like that of
Troy, lasted ten years, and the means of its capture was almost as
marvelous as the wooden horse by which Troy was taken. The waters of the
Alban Lake rose to such a height as to deluge the neighboring country.
An oracle declared that Veii could not be taken until the waters of the
lake found a passage to the sea. This reached the ears of the Romans,
who thereupon constructed a tunnel to carry off its superfluous
waters.[19] The formation of this tunnel is said to have suggested to
the Romans the means of taking Veii. M. Furius Camillus, who was
appointed Dictator, commenced digging a mine beneath the city, which was
to have its outlet in the citadel, in the temple of Juno, the guardian
deity of Veii. When the mine was finished, the attention of the
inhabitants was diverted by feigned assaults against the walls.
Camillus led the way into the mine at the head of a picked body of
troops. As he stood beneath the temple of Juno, he heard the soothsayer
declare to the king of the Veientines that whoever should complete the
sacrifice he was offering would be the conqueror. Thereupon the Romans
burst forth and seized the flesh of the victim, which Camillus offered
up. The soldiers who guarded the walls were thus taken in the rear, the
gates were thrown open, and the city soon filled with Romans. The booty
was immense, and the few citizens who escaped the sword were sold as
slaves. The image of Juno was carried to Rome, and installed with great
pomp on Mount Aventine, where a temple was erected to her. Camillus
entered Rome in a chariot drawn by four white horses. Rome had never yet
seen so magnificent a triumph (B.C. 396).
One circumstance, which occurred during the siege of Veii, deserves
notice. As the Roman soldiers were obliged to pass the whole year under
arms, in order to invest the city during the winter as well as the
summer, they now, for the first time, received pay.
Veii was a more beautiful city than Rome, and, as it was now without
inhabitants, many of the Roman people wished to remove thither. At the
persuasion of Camillus the project was abandoned; but the territory of
Veii was divided among the Plebeians.
Falerii was almost the only one of the Etruscan cities which had
assisted Veii, and she was now exposed single-handed to the vengeance of
the Romans. It is related that, when Camillus appeared before Falerii, a
schoolmaster of the town treacherously conducted the sons of the noblest
families into the Roman camp, but that Camillus, scorning the baseness
of the man, ordered his arms to be tied behind him, and the boys to flog
him back into the town; whereupon the inhabitants, overcome by such
generosity, gave up their arms, and surrendered to the Romans (B.C.
394).
Camillus was one of the proudest of the Patricians; and he now incurred
the hatred of the Plebeians by calling upon every man to refund a tenth
of the booty taken at Veii; because he had made a vow to consecrate to
Apollo a tithe of the spoil. He was accused of having appropriated the
great bronze gates at Veii, and was impeached by one of the Tribunes.
Seeing that his condemnation was certain, he went into exile, praying as
he left the walls that the Republic might soon have cause to regret him
(B.C. 491). His prayer was heard, for the Gauls had already crossed the
Apennines, and next year Rome was in ashes.
[Footnote 18: The Censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the
state, with the exception of the Dictatorship. The duties of the Censors
were numerous and important. They not only took the _census_--or the
register of the citizens and their property--hut they also chose the
members of the Senate, exercised a superintendence over the whole public
and private life of the citizens, and, in addition, had the
administration of the finances of the state.]
[Footnote 19: This remarkable work, which, after the lapse of more than
two thousand years, still continues to serve the purpose for which it
was originally designed, is cut through the soft volcanic tufa of which
the Alban Hill is composed. The length of the tunnel is about 6000 feet,
and it is 4 feet 6 inches wide.]
[Illustration: Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus restored.]